Who is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the Saudi royal who spends millions on superyachts and mansions – and is at the centre of human rights issues?

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, known as MBS, is the future king of Saudi Arabia.

The 34-year-old heir will ascend to the throne after the death of his father, 83-year-old King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud.

Prince Mohammed is known for his lavish spending. He has bought a US$500 million yacht, a US$300 million French chateau, and a US$450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting. According to one estimate, the Saudi royal family – which has about 15,000 members – is worth up to US$1.4 trillion.

The royal family’s empire includes Saudi Aramco, the massive, state-owned oil company that just went public and is now valued at US$1.9 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world.

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Salman has become a controversial global political figure, particularly since the autumn of 2018, when he faced global outcry over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who the CIA later concluded was assassinated on the prince’s orders.

Here’s a look at the lavish – and controversial – lifestyle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

He was born to King Salman and his third wife, Fahda bint Falah, in 1985.

He was named crown prince in June 2017 after his father, King Salman, decided to remove Mohammed bin Nayef from the position.

Rumours later emerged that Salman had secretly plotted to oust bin Nayef and take his place, The New York Times reported.

The prince has a bachelor’s degree in law from King Saud University, the oldest university in Saudi Arabia.

After graduating, he worked for several state agencies before being appointed as a special adviser to his father in 2009, who was serving as governor of Riyadh at the time.

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In 2012, Salman’s father was named crown prince after the death of Nayef bin Abdul Aziz. Three years later, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud died and the prince’s father took the throne at the age of 79.

Salman is not yet king, but he “essentially runs the country for his father”, 83-year-old King King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, according to Bloomberg.

Salman is known to be a “workaholic” who spends 18 hours of the day in his office, according to The Guardian.

But he reportedly does not take criticism well.

“People who tried to say [things] even gently and diplomatically faced consequences,” one source from Saudi Arabia told The Guardian.

The total wealth of the Saudi royal family is unknown, but it could be worth as much as US$1.4 trillion, according to House of Saud, an English language Saudi royal family news resource.

The royal wealth has been accumulated over decades of oil revenue-generated expansion.

There are about 15,000 members of the Saudi royal family, but most the vast fortune is distributed among 2,000 of them, according to CNBC.

The British royal family, for comparison, is worth an estimated US$88 billion.

The Saudi royal family’s empire includes Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant that just went public and now has a valuation of US$1.9 trillion.

That makes it the most valuable company in the world, outstripping the market capitalisations of the biggest US giants, including Microsoft, Apple and Google’s parent, Alphabet.

Saudi officials had been seeking a valuation of US$2 trillion for the company, Bloomberg reported.

Aramco announced revenue of US$68 billion in the first nine months of 2019, making it the most profitable company in the world.

Salman and his father, King Salman, are often found in “a network of marble-columned palaces and countryside retreats” in Riyadh, according to The New York Times.

Foreign dignitaries and politicians are often hosted at the Al-Yamamah Palace.

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During a visit from President Obama to the opulent Erga Palace, reporters spotted gold-plated Kleenex dispensers and gold chairs, according to CBS News.

The royal family is rumoured to own several other lavish residences around the world, including in Switzerland, London, France and Morocco.

Salman is known for his extravagant purchases.

He has spent hundreds of millions on superyachts, private jets, helicopters, French chateaux and rare paintings.

The crown prince reportedly owns a US$500 million, 440-foot yacht named Serene, which includes multiple swimming pools and hot tubs, two helipads, a helicopter hangar, a gym and a cinema.

The yacht can sleep 24 guests in 15 cabins.

The prince reportedly bought the superyacht after spotting it while holidaying in the south of France.

In 2015, Salman bought a chateau in France for US$300 million, which was dubbed “the world’s most expensive home” by Fortune at the time.

It wasn’t until 2017 that news broke that it was the Saudi prince who had bought the Chateau Louis XIV in Louveciennes, which is located west of Paris.

The 17th-century chateau reportedly includes fountains, a sound system, lights and air-conditioning system that can all be controlled by an iPhone.

The lavish property also has a wine cellar, a cinema and a moat with a transparent underwater chamber.

Salman also picked up a Leonardo da Vinci painting for US$450 million at a Christie’s auction in 2017.

Salman made the winning bid on da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” anonymously by phone.

The painting had been estimated to sell for around $100 million leading into the auction.

Salman has been in the news in recent years for a variety of scandals.

Saudi Arabia has faced criticism for human rights abuses and repressive laws, such as the one that says all Saudi women must have a male guardian.

In February 2019, Insider published an investigation detailing how a Saudi app called Absher allows men in Saudi Arabia to track and control where women travel. The reporting prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to launch an investigation into the app, which is sold on the App Store.

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In the fall of 2017, Salman was reportedly behind a corruption crackdown that saw more than 200 people arrested and some detained for weeks in a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Saudi Arabia reportedly use coercion and physical abuse during the interrogations.

And according to Al Jazeera, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia has been on the rise: 133 people were executed in the first eight months after Salman became crown prince.

In the autumn of 2018, Salman faced global outcry over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

In November 2018, the CIA concluded the journalist was assassinated on Salman’s orders.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that Salman had any role in Khashoggi’s death.

The Saudis denied for weeks that Khashoggi had been killed and repeatedly changed their story. The kingdom later announced that 18 people had been arrested in connection with the killing and said in January 2019 that prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty for five suspects.

While many world leaders publicly condemned Salman after Khashoggi’s death, US President Donald Trump has said we may never know if Salman ordered the killing of the journalist or not.

After the CIA concluded that Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi, Trump expressed support for Salman, Al Jazeera reported in December 2018.

As Business Insider previously reported, Trump has had deep business ties with the Saudi Arabian court for more than two decades.

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And Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has reportedly pushed for closer ties with Saudi Arabia and particularly with Salman.

Kushner and Salman have had a close relationship for more than two years, Business Insider’s Ellen Cranley reported.

At the G20 Summit in Argentina in December 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin was seen enthusiastically greeting Salman.

Putin’s enthusiastic greeting of Salman at G20 came right after other world leaders had condemned Saudi Arabia for the killing of Khashoggi.

Other world leaders appeared to ignore Salman in a group photo at the summit.

Beyond politics, Salman has ties to top US technology companies and has toured some of Silicon Valley’s top firms, including Google and Apple.

In the spring of 2018, Salman met Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

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His west coast tour also included a stop in Seattle to meet Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund owns 5 per cent of Uber, according to the ride-sharing company’s most recent S-1 filing. The fund is also a top investor in Softbank’s massive Vision Fund, which owns 16 per cent of Uber as well as sizeable stakes in companies such as Slack, WeWork and DoorDash.

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This article originally appeared on Business Insider .